Where Munich Surfs

 

Have you heard of Englischer Garten (English Garden)? It is a public park in the center of München, just west of the Isar, the river that runs through the Bavarian capital. Englischer Garten is one of the world's largest urban parks and even bigger than Central Park in NYC, and it is just a short walk from downtown's Marienplatz. The name refers to its English garden form of informal landscape. The Southern part is the more popular one whereas the Northern part, called Hirschau, is much quieter. The park is 5 km long and runs parallel to the Isar.

It has streams, lakes, wide lawns and meadows, old trees and some popular attractions like the Monopteros temple, the Chinese tower and, of course, a beer garden. We ARE in Bavaria after all. One of my favorite places was the Japanese teahouse.

The Japanese teahouse and a Japanese garden were created in 1972. It was the year of the summer Olympics in München - those of you old enough will probably remember them and hopefully not only because of the horrible massacre in the second week of the games. Sapporo in Japan was the place of the winter Olympics in the same year (at that time the summer and winter games took place in the same year, but in different countries) and has been a partner city of München ever since. The Japanese teahouse was created in order to celebrate this partnership.

Throughout the park there are lawns and meadows to rest as well as trails meandering through the trees.

Do you see the swan sitting on its nest?

This is the Monopteros temple in the background. If you think you see people in the nude here, you are correct. A fairly large part of the Englisher Garten is "nude area" where you can just drop off your clothes if you like - and it's not only the young and beautiful. Remember, we Germans aren't particularly puritanical.

Like any other park, Englischer Garten has its share of Greylag Geese, and I also spotted what I think is a Bar-headed Goose (if I'm wrong, I hope that David will correct me).

But the most exciting part is Eisbachwelle. 

Eisbachwelle is a standing wave in the Eisbach (ice stream) that is produced by the change from laminar to turbulent flow. This is where Munich surfs. On both sides of the stream surfers wait with their boards until it is their turn. Each surfer surfs for about 30 seconds and then drops out voluntarily so that the next person can go in. The surfers take turns alternately from the left and right side. I was impressed how well this works and that no one hogs the wave for more than 30 seconds at the most.

Now, as someone living close to the California coast I am used to seeing surfers - riding the waves of the Pacific. What I saw here at Eisbachwelle is a far cry from the Pacific Ocean, but boy, you need to be good for this. Really good.

I am including a few short videos so you can see the real action - and just look how great these women are!!!

Maybe you need a rest after this. Let's hang out in the hammock for a while.

I'm linking up with Rain's TAD.